Almost 9 out of every 10 people in the United States plan on taking an extended vacation of four day or more away from home in a given year. For leisure trips in the U.S., about 80% are by car. Finding space in a car for all of the cargo, especially in large families, can be difficult. Although more people are buying large cars, the amount of cargo that people carry has also grown as people increasingly travel with pets, sports equipment, and the numerous electronic devices that have become commonplace in our everyday lives. In some instances, the items people carry simply can't fit in a car. Items such as canoes, kayaks, paddle boards, bicycles, skis, and snowboards may be too large or awkwardly shaped to carry inside most vehicles. With other items, for example a muddy mountain bike, vehicle owners may not wish to carry them inside the vehicle in order to keep the interior free from dirt and grease. A common solution to these challenges is to secure cargo on the roof of a vehicle. Many vehicles come with factory roof rack systems and companies such as Yakima Products Inc. (Beaverton, Oreg.) and the Thule Group (Malmo Municipality, Sweden) offer aftermarket roof rack systems adaptable to most vehicles.
While roof racks can provide much needed additional space for cargo outside of the vehicle, many vehicle roofs are high and roof rack components and the cargo they carry can be heavy. Many popular sport utility vehicles have heights around 6 feet and many roof rack components are installed several inches above the roof height. Installing roof rack components such as roof boxes and loading them can prove a challenge requiring people to strain to lift items above their heads and climb awkwardly on bumpers or door sills. This challenge generally proves bothersome and leads to hesitation to use a roof rack but, in some cases, can even cause to injury or damage to the vehicle.